Severus Snape's Last Will
by thebiggestharrypotterloverever
Summary: AU The final battle is finally over, and Harry is ready to put everything that happened during the war behind him. Unfortunately Harry Ron and Hermione are called to the ministry of magic when the very mysterious and odd will of Severus Snape is being revealed. Now there is a new danger threatening the wizarding world, more horrible than ever before. original pairings please R&R:)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own harry potter, just this plot**

**AN: hey people! This is my first fic ever so please review and tell me what you think! :)**

Chapter 1- The Letter

Harry woke up to find that he was lying on a bed in Sirius's old room in Grimmauld place number 12. His head was a little dizzy, as he started to remember the events of the previous days, that slowly floated back to his mind. He couldn't help himself and grinned widely at the thought of Lord Voldemort being finally gone. Then with a small sad twitch he remember the less happy details about the final battle, and suddenly felt his chest feeling heavier at the thought about Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Colin… it was hard to believe they were all gone. And Snape, a small voice in the back of his head reminded him, he's gone too.

After the battle was over everybody had a big celebration in the great hall. They were both happy that Voldemort was finally defeated, but also mourning for the loved ones they had lost. At around noon, they stopped the celebrating, and helped clean up the castle, which was hard since it was almost completely destroyed. They did a pretty good job, but Professor McGonagall said some parts of the castle would never be fully recovered. They finished late at night, and Harry said goodbye to his friends. Hermione was staying at the Weasleys', since her parents were still in Australia, and her and Ron were officially a couple now. Harry decided he'd stay at Grimmauld place because he didn't want to bother the Weasleys too much. He collapsed on the bed and fell asleep right away, since he hadn't slept for over two days. He checked the clock next to Sirius's bed, and was surprised to see it was only noon.

He thought he would drop at the Weasleys to see how they were doing, so he crawled out of the warm bed, showered, dressed, and went out to the street. It felt so good not needing to hide under the cloak of invisibility anymore, and not having to worry about the line of death eaters that watched you twenty four hours a day.

He apparated to the burrow, and before he could even start walking towards the door he saw Ginny running out of the house towards him, her eyes full of tears. They hugged for a few seconds, before she looked up at him, as though she was about to say something, but then Mrs. Weasley appeared at the door.

"Oh Harry dear, so nice of you to come." She said, her voice shaking. There were black circles around her eyes, and her face was red like she cried the whole night. Harry wondered if that really was the case.

Harry gave her a small smile in return, and entered the burrow, holding Ginny's hand.

Mrs. Weasley closed the door behind them and hurried back to the kitchen. Harry looked around, noting that the house was more quiet than usual. Ginny was probably guessing what he was thinking.

"They are all sleeping." She told him. Harry nodded, then he saw Hermione, who was crumbled on a couch next to the fire with a cup of coffee. When she saw Harry her face lit up, and she smiled at him.

"How are you doing?" he asked her, as him and Ginny sat down on the couch in front of her.

"I'm not really sure yet. I mean, it all just happened way too fast, and I just can't believe this is all over." She said weakly, then she added, "You?"

"Same, I guess, I'm just not sure I know what I want to do next. Hunting Voldemort down had been such a big part of my life that I don't really know what I'm supposed to do without it." Harry said. It felt really good to have said these things out loud.

"I know what you mean." Hermione replied.

"Well, I think I have a suggestion that would help you guys decide." Ginny said suddenly, and Harry and Hermione looked at her confusedly, so she continued, "When I was helping McGonagall cleaning up of the classes she mentioned something about having a special program for the people that missed their 7th year in Hogwarts, that would let them repeat it. Think about that, another year at Hogwarts could help you decide what you want to do. Wouldn't it be nice to have one year without any crazy adventure, or not being tried to kill by Voldemort?"

"It would be nice." Harry admitted.

"I can have a whole year dedicated strictly to school, with no other distractions from academics and learning. That sounds terrific!" said Hermione happily, which made harry and Ginny laugh.

After about an hour Ron woke up, and the three told him about the idea of joining the program of repeating the 7th year.

"That would be great! We can finally win the Quidditch cup! Harry if I'm not keeper, you're a dead man." Ron exclaimed.

"Is Quidditch all you can think about?" asked Hermione furiously, which made Ron grin innocently.

It was about five o'clock, and George didn't come out of his room yet. The four kids talked in the living room quietly, while Mr. and Mrs. Weasley exchanged worried glances. Suddenly, an owl came in through the window. It was sealed with the mark of the Ministry of magic. It was addressed to Harry Ron and Hermione.

"Well, that's odd." Said Mrs. Weasley, as she handed the letter to Harry.

Harry opened the letter, Ron and Hermione standing behind him, all reading it quietly.

_Dear Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger,_

_We would like you to come to the ministry right when you get this letter. There has been a search in Hogwarts, and we found something that we need to share with you immediately. _

_Sincerely yours, _

_Kingsley Shacklebot_

_Temporary Minister of Magic _


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thanks for those who reviewed the last chapter, it really means a lot! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I know how surprising it is but I am not J K Rowling and therefore I do not own Harry Potter, just an oc in this chapter and the plot of this story :) **

Chapter two- The Will of Severus Snape

Harry Ron and Hermione were sitting uncomfortably in the large round room at the ministry. The walls were deep dark blue, the ceiling was golden, and there was a big glass chandelier hanging above them. The room was empty except for the three chairs they were sitting on and a handsome wooden desk that had a name plate that said Roger Spekleton- Head of Magical Wills Department. Harry looked at Ron, who was sitting next to him, and his confused expression had told him that Ron had never heard of that department either.

Just a few minutes ago Kingsley had brought them to this odd looking room after they had apparated to the Ministry of Magic. He refused to tell them anything about the mysterious object they have found in Hogwarts that was so important, and told them to wait in this room until the person responsible for this case will come to take care of them.

After a few minutes of waiting in silence, entered a man Harry had never saw before, but he guessed was Roger Spekleton. He was in this early 30s, and wore a long blue cloak, that matched the color of the walls in his room. He was smiling broadly at Harry as he got up to shake his hand.

"Harry Potter, what an honor to meet you!" he said excitedly.

"Thank you" Harry replied, since he didn't really know what else to say.

"And you must be Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley! It's great that you all came down here, we have some serious matters to discuss." They all sat down, and the man who has just entered put a suspicious package on his desk, and next to it he laid and old piece of parchment.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself, my name is Roger Spekleton, I am head of Magical Wills Department." He said and then continued in respond to their puzzled expressions, "You have probably never heard of it, it's a fairly new department that just opened up in the ministry. You see, the need for it came from all of those we have lost during the final battle, our job is to search for their magical wills and fulfill their wishes."

"I'm still not sure I understand why you called us here." Said Harry

"Well," Roger began, "I assume that you are familiar with a former death eater who is called Severus Snape?"

"Yes" Harry Ron and Hermione replied at once. Harry still didn't get where the conversation was going towards.

"After the final battle you, Mr. Potter, gave us the information that Snape died-"

"He was murdered by Voldemort." Harry cut him through.

"Yes, yes murdered, as you said. And we found his body, he'll be buried with the rest of the people who died during the battle. But let's get to the point, shall we? After the battle was over we searched Snape's room, and found this." He said, and picked up the old piece of parchment. He took a pair of glasses out of his pocket, and started reading.

"_The Last Will of Severus Tobias Snape. _

_I, Severus Snape, leave, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, all the property that I own at my office at Hogwarts and at my house at Spinner's End-"_

"Sir I'm sorry to interrupt you," now it was Hermione's turn to stop Roger, "but what does this have to do with us?"

"You will see in just one second Miss Granger, now where was I, oh right,- _all the property that I own at my office at Hogwarts and at my house at Spinner's End, except for one object that is the top drawer in my desk in Hogwarts,next to my will. I would like to give it to Harry James Potter, Ron Bilius Weasley, and Hermione Jean Granger, at the hope that it would guide them and help them to find their ways."_

He handed Harry the package that he put on the table before, and with shaking hands harry took it and put it on his lap.

"I suggest you open it Mr. Potter." Said Roger quietly.

Harry turned to look at his two best friends. Hermione was staring at the package and looked frightened, while Ron just pulled his shoulders and gave harry a just-do-it look.

Harry removed the fabric that was covering the object Snape had left them, and a wave of shock hit him at the sight of what it was. Near him he heard Hermione gasped with surprise. At the background Roger went on reading from Snape's will.

"_I leave them my old copy of _Advanced Potion Making _that I believe they will find useful." _

In his hands Harry held the horribly familiar old crumpled book, and turned to the first page. There, on the cover, in the same small cramped handwriting, it said,

_This book is property of the Half Blood Prince._

**AN: Hope you liked it! Please review :) **


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hey everybody! :)**

**Okay so first of all I have to apologize for not updating for such a long time, I really don't have an excuse for that… I wasn't really sure where I was going to with this story, but I am now. I'll try to update weekly, but I have a really busy schedule so I can't promise anything.**

**Thank you all so much for reading this story! Please review :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I wish I did…**

Chapter 3- A Plan

_Stolen body!_

_Sources in Hogwarts notified that earlier this week the body of He Who Must Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort, who not so long ago was still the biggest threat our world had known, was stolen from her place in the castle. Hogwarts teacher stuff, who is led by its new headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, is very worried about the theft. This mysterious event is especially worrying because of the student who will be joining Hogwarts next year, Harry Potter himself. Mr. Potter will be beginning his last year in Hogwarts, along with his two friends who were accompanying him last year while he was on the run. _

_"We have no idea why anybody would want Voldemort's body," Says Minerva McGonagall, "but -"_

Draco Malfoy threw the copy of _The Daily Prophet_ he was holding in his hand on his bedroom floor. He rubbed his eyes with his hands as he stretched on the bed. He looked at the clock on his bedside shelf and saw it was 10 AM. He had been awake since 6 AM, but he still hasn't gotten out of his room, or even out of his bed. He was starving, but he preferred to starve to death than to go down to his living room. He heard muffled voices from downstairs, and he assumed it was his parents arguing again. He covered his head with his blanket just wishing he would stop existing, or at least disappear.

This summer has been the worst one in his life, even worse than the last one. Honestly, Draco didn't think it was possible, but it turned out that with Voldemort gone is even worse than Voldemort alive. He hadn't gotten out of his house even once since the final battle and he'd barely gotten out of his room. It was unbearable to be with his parents these days, because they were both depressed and miserable, for different reasons though. His mother was still mourning over her sister, something that Draco had a hard time empathizing with since he was never too close to his aunt. His father, on the other hand, was not so busy mourning as he was eager to win his dignity back. At the night of the final battle Lucius decided to try the strategy he used on the last wizarding war. He stood up on the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, and screamed that his family has been under the influence of the Imperio curse, and that they were forced to work for Voldemort. Unfortunately for Lucius, in the middle of his speech Grawp, whose head was peeping through the window, got a hold of Lucius's legs and started swinging him around. After that traumatic event Lucius spent the entire summer walking around the Malfoy Manor, bitterly murmuring to himself about the Malfoy family lost dignity, and slightly shivering whenever Draco or his mother got near him.

Draco remembered that in the same night, when the members of Order of the Phoenix were trying to get Grawp to let go of his father, he asked his mother why they weren't going to Azkaban like the rest of the death eaters. All his mother said was that Harry Potter owned her a favor.

Unlike his parents Draco didn't really mind what the rest of the world thought about him, but he was troubled this summer because of something else. This whole time he has been trying to figure out how to finish the job he's been handed, a job that was so crucial and important that if he didn't finish it, the whole Wizarding World might be in grave danger. He wasn't exactly sure how to do it, because in order to finish what the person who gave him this job started, he had to go to where it all started. According to this person, the mission he was given could only be accomplish in a certain place, Hogwarts, or the forbidden forest to be accurate. He had no idea how he could get into the castle, although, he thought, the protections around it shouldn't really be strong if someone managed to get in and steal Voldemort's body from there…

And then it hit him.

Draco quickly grabbed the newspaper that he threw on the floor with disinterest a few minutes ago and reread the part of the article that he had thought about.

_Mr. Potter will be beginning his last year in Hogwarts… _

The line echoed in his head again and again. Potter was going back to Hogwarts to finish his last year, and if he'll be doing it, then why not Draco? He lied on his back again, with a big smile stretched across his face, and a new plan started to form in his head. He had a feeling he knew where he'll be spending his next year.

**AN: Please review! **


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: OK, so I know this update is a week later than what I said it will be, but here you go, the next chapter! Pretty please REVIEW this chapter and tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading this!**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own harry potter :( **

Chapter 4: Realizations

By the time Harry, Ron, and Hermione got back home it was nearly morning. They were at the Ministry for hours to sign papers and do all sorts of things that were part of, as Roger Speckleton said, the regulations. When they finally finished, the three of them apparated to Grimmauld place. The sun started to rise as the three of them sat down with coffee on the couches next to the fireplace. They drank it in silence as they stared at the book placed on the table next to them, all thinking about the same thing. Hermione was the first one to break the silence.

"So any of you have any idea why Snape would leave us this book?" she asked in a tone that was so casual that she might as well could've talked about the weather.

"No idea." Ron said, as he took another sip from his coffee.

"How about you Harry?" Hermione asked her friend, who was sitting on an armchair next to the fireplace, staring at the dancing flames, and not paying much attention to this conversation.

"Harry?" Hermione repeated, as Harry snapped out of his thoughts.

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"I was just asking if you had any idea why Snape would leave us this book." Hermione repeated the question.

"Honestly I have no idea, I was trying to figure the answer to that question since Roger gave me the book, but I just can't think of a reasonable explanation, and furthermore," He continued, "I can't think of the answer to an even more unreasonable question, how come that the book of the Half-Blood Prince still exists?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ron asked confusedly.

"During our sixth year, after I had the fight with Malfoy in the bathroom Snape asked to see my potion book. I knew he knows about the Half-Blood Prince's book, but I didn't know how yet. Anyway, do you remember I wanted to borrow your potion book?" Ron nodded in agreement, "Well, when I was on my way to the bathroom I stopped in the room of requirement to hide the book there, in case Snape would look for it. But two days ago, during the battle, everything that was in the room of requirement was ruined in the fire, including-"

"The book of the Half-Blood Prince" Hermione finished his sentence.

"Exactly" Harry said.

"Maybe Snape took the book from the Room of Requirement before the fire," Ron suggested, "I mean, Roger said they found it in his office, next to his will."

"But how would Snape know about the book being in the room of requirement?" Hermione challenged him. Ron was quiet for a minute, and a small wrinkle appeared between his eyes as though he was concentrating, then he sighed.

"I really don't know how Snape knew, but what I do know is that I'm starving! How would you like to go back to the burrow before my mom freaks out, and maybe eat something there?" Ron asked hopefully.

"That sounds great" Harry said smiling, he too was starving. Hermione just rolled her eyes and said "Boys…"

"Let's go then!" Ron called happily, but Harry said, "You guys wait outside, I'll be there in a second."

Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance before getting up, and walking out of the house. After they did Harry grabbed the book and ran upstairs. He placed it Sirius's bed, under his pillow, telling himself that he'd deal with it when he comes back later.

The three of them apparated to _the burrow_ and were welcomed in by Mrs. Weasley, who seemed more worried than before. Ginny was waiting for them and started questioning the three of them first thing when they came into her room. Harry told her everything that happened at the ministry and at Grimmauld place. She seemed just as surprised and shocked as he was when he first saw the book.

"That's it anyway." Harry said when he finished. "Anything interesting happened here while we were gone?"

"Not really actually," Ginny replied, "George still hasn't gotten out of his room, he's been locked in there since we came back home from the battle. Mom and dad were trying to get him out of there but it hasn't exactly been working for them."

"He's been taking Fred's death much harder than the rest of us." Ron explained.

"Understandably," Hermione commented, "he was his _twin_. I can't imagine how hard it must be for him." Harry, Ron, and Ginny just nodded. They continued to talk about Fred, and then changed the subject and talked about how the next year at Hogwarts would be like. Later that day they came downstairs and listened to the radio with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

As they were doing that an owl came through the open window, carrying four letters, all with stamps of Hogwarts. "I'm guessing these are for the four of you." Mrs. Weasley said as she handed each one of them a letter.

They all opened their letters excitedly to see what was in them. Mrs. Weasley was right, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were offered to repeat their last year at Hogwarts, and Harry was even offered to the captain of the Quidditch team. Ginny, much to her parent's surprise, was appointed head girl, and was jumping up and down, waving her budge. Percy, Charlie, and Fleur, who came over for dinner, congratulated Ginny with hugs, and Percy reminded her of how important it is that she'll be extra responsible this year. At that Ginny just rolled her eyes. They all sat around the table, eating from Mrs. Weasely's delicious food , talking, laughing, and listening to Mrs. Weasley's favorite songs on the radio. They were so happy about being called to Hogwarts that they forgot all about the mysterious book of the Half Blood Prince, or even the heavy loses of the war.

They were so busy celebrating that day that they forgot all about George being stuck in his room, only that this was the evening that he'd finally chosen to come down. As soon as Mr. Weasley noticed him he turned off the radio. Suddenly the room was silenced, the sounds of the talking and laughing instantly stopped as everybody turned to look at where Mr. Weasley was staring at.

George was slowly coming down the stairs, leaning on the wall next to him to prevent his shaking legs from making him collapse. Harry had never saw him like this and wondered how he could've gotten to this state in just two days. His eyes were surrounded by black circles, and it was clear he hasn't slept for even one minute since he came back. He looked skinnier that the usual, since he locked himself in his room and didn't let his parents give him any food for the last couple of days. He looked older, more mature than he ever did, and his eyes were missing the playful spark he always had in them. The worst part of it all was that he seemed to have lost the expression of happiness and joy that was always shown on his face, it was replaced by seriousness and sadness, and he looked like a different person.

The room was silenced for a few minutes as everyone stared at George with disbelief. Finally Mrs. Weasley approached his and tried to hug him, but he pushed her arms away. She froze in surprise at his hostile reaction, than took a few steps back. Then George finally spoke.

"How can you possibly be celebrating?" He said it in a form of a question but it was obvious he wasn't expecting an answer. His voice was shaky and hoarse, as though he didn't use it for a long time. Even though he had the same voice these words were said in a completely different tone than his usual one. Everyone stared at the floor with shame.

"How can you possibly-" he started again, but he was interrupted by his father.

"Son-" Mr. Weasley began.

"He hasn't even been gone for two day," George continued, ignoring his father, "and you all are acting as though nothing happened. You've already forgotten about him, you forgot that even existed-"

"Of course we haven't forgotten he's existed, George." This time it was Charlie's turn to interrupt George. "Fred," George slightly flinched at the sound of his twin's name, "was our bother too, and it hurts us just as much as it does to you!"

"Well clearly it doesn't if you already can celebrate as though nothing happened. You've been down here while I was up mourning for my twin, for my other half when you are just acting as though it didn't happen and are managing to move on with your life!" George retorted at him.

"Fred would've probably wanted us to move on with our lives even after he'd be gone, that's what he'd want for you too." Percy told him softly.

"How would you even know what he'd wanted, you were gone for the last three fucking years! " George screamed towards Percy, who seemed slightly taken aback by this.

"Do not speak to your brother this way." Mr. Weasley said, a hint of anger shown in his voice.

"You know what? I'm tired to you telling me what to do. You can't say that you know how I feel, you'll never know how I feel right now. I'm sick of the fact that you think we can all just move on with our life as though he didn't die, but here's a newsflash to you, I can't just move on as though nothing happened, Fred actually meant something to me." George yelled, his voice echoed in the house.

"Of course Fred meant something to us, he was my brother he meant the world to me, you know that." Ginny said, her eyes filled with tears.

"I thought I did, but I'm not so sure about that anymore." George replied quietly, his words were like knives, quiet, but sharp. It started raining now, the dripping sound was clear on the roof of _the borrow_, and it was the only thing you could hear, except for the fire.

When George saw no one commented he made a run for the door, leaving the house and letting a cold burst of wind into the living room. Mrs. Weasley screamed "George wait!" and started running after him. No one else did, they knew he wasn't about to come back.

A few minutes later Mrs. Weasley came back to the house, her eyes filled with years. She whispered only two words, "He's Gone"

**AN: Hope you like it! Next chapter is going to be at Hogwarts! Please review :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: HELLO! Next chapter is up :) Enjoy!**

Chapter 5- A New Year

Walking into Platform 9 and ¾ in king cross's station with Ron and Hermione in front of him and Ginny next to him, holding his hand, might have been the best feeling in the world for Harry. He could really feel that this was going to be a drama free, normal year. That was something he wanted since his very first year, but then again, it's not exactly something possible in a place like Hogwarts. Although, he felt something different this year, maybe it was because the war has ended, or because Voldemort finally died, or maybe it was just the good feeling he had whenever Ginny was by his side.

Harry's thoughts were then cut by the sound of someone yelling his name from behind him. As he turned around he saw Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas running towards them. The four of them stopped as they approached them. Dean looked the same as he did when they saw him at the battle, but Seamus on the other hand looked very different. His face, which were injured and bruised during the battle, now looked like they used to before his last year at Hogwarts.

"Hey Dean, Seamus, how was your summer?" asked Ron.

"It was alright," said Seamus, "we both stayed with Dean's mom, so it was nice. It's good to be back though, I wonder how the castle would look like after…" he trailed off.

"Probably the same, I think the teachers would prefer to keep the castle the way it was before." said Hermione.

"Hey Harry, I heard you are going to be Captain this year, Congratulation!" Dean told him, smiling.

"Thanks."

"So when are you planning to do the tryouts for the new team?" he asked excitedly.

"Oh, I haven't really thought about that yet, but I'll let you know when I will."

"Ah, okay, thanks." said Dean, looking slightly disappointed. "Well, I better get going, Luna must be waiting for me, I promised her we'll sit together during the train ride."

"Oh I forgot! Luna told me about the two of you getting together, I'm so happy for you!" said Ginny.

"Thank you, well see you guys later." said Dean. "Yeah, see you at the feast." Said Seamus, and they both walked away. .

When Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny got on the train, Ginny announced that she had a head meeting and that she can't spend the train ride with them.

"So you are abandoning us?" asked Hermione jokingly.

"Hey, a head girl's got to do what a head girl's got to do" Ginny replied.

"Good luck in your head meeting." Harry said, then gave her a short kiss on the lips, on which Ron looked away in disgust.

"Oh, grow up Ron!" Ginny sighed, then turned around and walked towards the head compartment.

"So who is the head boy?" asked Ron as they started walking again.

"Just some Ravenclaw guy in her year, I think she said his name was Sam." Harry said. Ginny told him it was mentioned in her letter from Hogwarts.

"Do you mean Sam Williams?" Hermione asked suddenly

"Yeah, why?" Harry asked, surprised she knew who he was.

"No reason," said Hermione, "except that he is extremely good looking." She added with a smirk, which made Ron roll his eyes and Harry frown. When she saw Harry's reaction she added quickly, "Harry, you know you have nothing to worry about, Ginny loves you, a lot, forget I even mentioned him."

They continued walking in silence. They passed almost all the compartments all the train, and almost all of them were full. On their way they met Parvati and Lavender, who were sitting with Seamus, Dean, and Luna. Eventually, they reached the end of the train, and saw the last compartment was occupied by two people, a boy and a girl.

"Sorry, but do you mind if we sit with you? It's just that the rest of the compartments are full." said Hermione politely.

"Of course." Said the girl, and they walked in and saw in front of the two teens. Harry got the closer look at the, and almost immediately he could tell that they were twins. They seemed about their ages, and Harry has never seen them before, but they still looked familiar to him. They had the exact same long thin face, the same deep blue eyes, and the same color of brown curly hair, only that hers was long, reaching the middle of her back, and his was short, reaching his ears. She was smiling nicely at them, and he looked down at the floor, avoiding their examining glances.

"Dean Merlin, you're Harry Potter!" the girl said suddenly, excitement in her eyes. The boy next to her looked up in surprise.

"Oh right, that's me." he said awkwardly.

"I'm Clover," she introduced herself, "and this is my twin brother Ian." She said, motioning in the direction of the boy sitting next to her, who looked at the floor again. "We'll be in Hufflepuff."

"I'm Hermione, and this is Ron, we're –" Hermione started.

"Yeah I know who you are." Clover said, "I've heard about the three of you."

"I don't think I ever saw the two of you at Hogwarts." Said Harry, who still hasn't figured out from where he knew these two teens.

"Well, that's because this is our first year at Hogwarts. We were homeschooled by our father until now, but he got a job at the Ministry this summer, so here we are." Clover said brightly.

"Why were you put in Hufflepuff?" asked Ron curiously, "Don't you need to do a sorting ceremony?"

"Well no, we actually requested going to Hufflepuff, I mean Ian did." Clover replied, which caused everyone to look at her brother with amazement. Ian just shrugged and said "I heard it was a good house."

And that was all they heard him say for the rest of the train ride.

They got off the train and were welcomed by Hagrid, who was trying to spot all the first years. When he saw them he smiled broadly at them and hugged them.

"Good ter see yeh' three again." He told them

"You too, Hagrid," said Harry as they pulled away from the hug, "how did your summer go?"

"It was a'right, McGonagall gamme permission ter keep Grawp in the fores', as long as I keep 'im under control." He added happily.

"That's great Hagrid!" Hermione said happily.

"Thank yeh Hermione, well the three of yeh betta' get goin' , yeh don' wanna be late fer the feast." He said and they waved him goodbye and left.

When they reached the grounds, still with no sign of Ginny, they noticed a gigantic, white, marble sculpture of a lion. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked towards it to see what it was, although Harry knew exactly what it was from the moment he saw it. Next to the lion's feet there were words, and although it was dark they were still readable. It said:

_Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important. _

And under it there was another line that said:

_Dedicated to the brave and courageous people, who fought and died, in the battle against Voldemort, in order to give the next generation a better future. _

"Wow" Ron exclaimed as he looked up at the sculpture.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Said harry smiling at the sculpture, thinking that those who died in the battle deserved nothing less than that.

They crossed the grounds and the castle appeared in front of them, lights shining from the windows. Hermione was right at the platform, the castle hasn't changed, and it looked exactly like it did before the battle. The Great Hall was filled with students, laughing, talking about their summer, and about what the new year in Hogwarts was going to be like.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting next to Seamus, Dean, Luna, Lavender, and Parvati, as Ginny walked into the Great Hall with a tall, blonde, muscular, and disturbingly handsome guy, who Harry assumed was Sam Williams. Seeing them together made Harry's stomach flip nervously, but then he remembered what Hermione said and relaxed a bit. Ginny sat next to him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she did. And smile at her, but didn't say anything, he decided there was nothing to worry about. Harry put his attention back to the conversation that was going on at the table.

"Do you guys know why Neville didn't come to Hogwarts this year?" Lavender asked.

"He is abroad, he started studying at a special Herbology school at France. His plans for later is to teach Herbology at Hogwarts, but he can only do that after he studied there." Dean replied.

"That's great! It sounds like a job that fits Neville perfectly." Hermione said, then added sadly, "Although, I think I'm really going to miss him this year." Everybody nodded in agreement at that.

"Hey have you read the _prophet_ this summer Harry?" Parvati asked suddenly.

"No, we didn't get it at the burrow, why?" Harry asked, slightly puzzled.

"Then the four of you didn't hear what happened at Hogwarts?" Seamus asked, surprised.

"What happened?" Ginny asked, even more confused than Harry.

"Voldemort's body was stolen from its place in Hogwarts." Luna said, with her usual calm casual tone.

"What?" said Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny in unison.

"Voldemort's body was stolen from its-" Luna started to repeat again, but was cut by Hermione.

"No, we heard you the first time" she said annoyed, "but how is it possible that someone managed to get in the castle?"

"Well, the stuff were busy rehabilitating the castle, so its protections weren't that strong. According to the article McGonagall suspects that it was a deatheater, trying to use Voldemort's body to bring him back to life." Dean explained to them.

"That isn't possible, is it?" Ron asked in panic.

"I don't think it is," said Harry, after a short silence, "but what I don't understand is who could've done this? I mean, all of the deatheaters were caught and put into Azkaban."

"Maybe there's another deatheater still out there, one that was under cover and that no one knew about him." Ginny offered.

Harry's mind was troubled. If what Ginny said was true, which probably was, then an unknown deatheater now had a hold of Voldemort's body, and was trying to bring back to life. And just when Harry thought that he would have a normal year.

He tried to calm down. After all, there was no way that this crazy deatheater could ever bring Voldemort back to life. Harry, Ron, and Hermione destroyed all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and there was no other way he'd ever come back to life.

Lavender hurried to change the subject of the conversation to how were things at the Weasley's house, and Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione lied and said everything was alright. They agreed before the train ride to Hogwarts not to tell about George leaving. After that night they haven't heard a word from George, nor did they tell anyone he was missing.

Later that evening McGonagall stood up and gave a speech. She congratulated the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher, Professor Crocklether, an old man with a bold head and a wrinkly face, who, used to be an auror.

While everyone was eating Harry scanned the crowd briefly. He spotted the Hufflepuff twins, Clover was having a quiet conversation with two other Hufflepuff girls, while her brother was staring at his food silently. As he continued to scan the Slytherin table he saw something that nearly made his eyeballs fall out of their place. Draco Malfoy was sitting alone at the edge of the Slytherin table, eating quietly. Ron probable saw Harry was fixed on something, and as he looked at Malfoy's direction his jaw dropped down.

"What the hell is he doing here?" He whispered in Harry's ears, and since Harry didn't really have an answer, he just shrugged.

When the feast was over Harry, Ron, Dean, and Seamus went to their dorm, and collapsed on their beds in exhaustion. Harry started to unpack his things, and the old book of the Half Blood Prince in the bottom of his suitcase caught his eyes. He picked it up and examined it again. Throughout the entire summer he was trying to figure out what was the meaning of the book, and no matter how much he thought about it, it still didn't make any since.

Then, a disturbing thought appeared in his mind, what if the mysterious will of Severus Snape and the event of the theft of Voldemort's body were somehow… connected?

Harry wasn't sure how he jumped to that conclusion but it suddenly seemed to make perfect sense. But he quickly canceled this ridiculous thought, Snape couldn't have known about the theft since it happened after he died.

Harry shoved the book deep into the suitcase, wishing it would help him stop thinking about it. He lied in his bed, trying to think about anything but Snape and Voldemort. After all, a new year at Hogwarts has just begun.

**AN: OK, so this chapter took me a long time to write. Pleaseeee review and tell me what you think! **

**PS, the quote I used on the lion monument, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear" does not belong to me, but to Ambrose Redmoon. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: sad as it is, I don't own Harry Potter… **

Chapter 6- Death

_He was standing in a forest, and the sun was hidden by the tall trees so only little light came into where he was standing. Suddenly the light began to disappear, and after a few short seconds darkness took over. Although, something glowed in the dark, and Harry followed the light to see where it was coming from. He reached a small clearing and saw an object placed on the ground, but he couldn't see what it was because of the light that was coming from it. Then he heard steps from behind him. A tall figure, wearing a black cloak with a hood that covered its face, was approaching him. In his hands he was carrying a skinny, white, naked body. The body's snake like face had its eyes closed, but Harry knew exactly what those red eyes looked like. As the figure holding the body got closer Harry tried to scream, but he couldn't find his voice. The figure got closer and closer its hand were reaching his neck-_

"Wake up mate!"

Harry felt a pillow thrown on his head.

"Wake up already! You don't want to be late on your first day." He heard again, and this time he recognized Ron's voice.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw Ron's blurry red headed figure standing above him. He smiled and put his glasses on.

Ron and Harry waited for Hermione at the common room, then after a minute saw her coming down from the girl dorms, her hair messy and black circles around her eyes.

"Good morning sunshine." Ron said jokingly, but Hermione shot him a look so poisonous it could kill a hippogriff.

"You look awful." Harry told her.

"Thank you." she said sarcastically, then added in frustration, "I haven't slept all night I was busy-"

"Studying all of our text books for this year by heart?" Ron suggested.

"No, just looking at them briefly." Hermione said defensively.

"Sure." Said Ron mockingly and Hermione gave him a slap on his arm.

"Where is Ginny? I thought you'd be with her." Harry asked Hermione.

"She sleeps at the head dorms" Hermione said, and when she saw Harry's confused look she said, "You do know that the head boy and girl get their own dorm, right?"

"Oh, right, I forgot about that." Harry said frowning, slightly bothered.

When they left the common room for breakfast they saw Ginny running towards them. Ron and Hermione told her good morning, then left Harry and Ginny and started walking to the Great Hall.

"Good morning" Ginny told him, and took his hand.

"Yeah, you too." He said weakly.

"What's wrong?" she asked right away. Sometimes Harry really hated how easily Ginny could read him.

"Nothing, it's just… nothing." He said, and put a fake smile on his face. Ginny raised her eyebrows at him.

"Well, Hermione reminded me this morning that you were sleeping in the same room as the head boy." He blurted out, then realized how stupid he sounded.

"Well it's not exactly the same room, but that's the general idea. Didn't you know that the head students have their own dorm?" she asked surprised.

"No, I did, it's just that I guess that I only now realized how much time you're going to be spending with this guy, and-"

"Wait, are you jealous of Sam?" Ginny asked suddenly.

"Of course not!" Harry said immediately.

"Good, because you have nothing to be jealous about, Sam and I are just friends, actually we're not even that, I barely know the guy. But the point is that Harry," she looked at him, "I love you."

"I love you too." He said, "And I trust you." he added.

They continued walking and entered a narrow hallway on the second floor. Then they Harry got quiet and stopped because he heard a voice, which was coming from behind the suit of armor.

He and Ginny slowly approached the voiced, then saw Draco Malfoy emerging from behind the suit. He was standing next to a portrait of a woman sitting on an armchair, drinking from a golden cup.

"Potter" he said scornfully.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Harry retorted at him.

"I believe that repeating your 7th year at Hogwarts was available to all students." He answered with a bored tone.

"I meant, what are you doing in the middle of this hallway, talking to yourself?"

"That, Potter, is none of your business." He said, and walked away.

Harry stared after him, filled with rage, "He's up to something."

On breakfast McGonagall gave out their weekly schedules, and Harry noticed that all the students that repeated their seventh year, which were ten people in total, were going to take the same classes. Behind the schedule sheet there was a list of their names.

_Lavender Brown_

_Seamus Finnegan_

_Hermione Granger_

_Parvati Patil_

_Harry Potter_

_Clover Spekleton _

_Ian Spekleton _

_Dean Thomas _

_Ronald Weasley _

Harry repeated the Hufflepuff twin's surname in his head, _Spekleton_, it sounded familiar. Suddenly, the image of the young Head of Magical Wills Department, Roger Spekleton, floated into his head. Then, he remembered what Clover told him in the train ride.

_We were homeschooled by our father until now, but he got a job at the Ministry this summer…_

Now, Harry knew where he knew them from, they were-

"Roger Spekleton's kids." He finished out loud.

"What?" asked Ron confusedly.

"Clover and Ian, from Hufflepuff," Hermione told him, then looked at Harry and explained, "Clover told me that yesterday while the two of you were changing into your Hogwarts uniform, that her dad told her and Ian about us."

"Look, we have DADA in first period." Ron said excitedly.

Professor Crocklether was already waiting for them at the class when they walked in. Harry sat next to Ron and Hermione at the front desk as the others started to fill the classroom. The last one to come in was Draco Malfoy, who closed the door after him and sat in the back of the classroom.

The students started to take out their textbooks, but the old professor stopped them.

"No need for your textbooks, we won't be using them this year."

As soon as he said that, Ron and Harry turned to look amusedly at Hermione, who, with black circles surrounding her eyes from the sleepless night, looked as though she just got slapped in the face.

"This year," he continued, "you won't be studying any new subjects. You are going to learn subjects you already know, but research them more thoroughly. You will pair up and work in couples. As tempting as it was to pair you up myself, I am going to give you a minute to pair up, and keep in mind that you'll be working in these couples for the rest of the year."

As soon as he finished talking, Harry turned to Ron, but saw he was already looking at Hermione.

"Sorry Harry." Hermione told him.

"It's okay, I'll find someone else." He said and look behind him at the class. He saw Seamus and Dean paired up, and so did Parvati and Lavender. He didn't need to look at the Spekleton twins to realize who his partner for the rest of the year was going to be.

"Time's up, everybody sit next to your partner." Professor Crocklether said.

Ron and Hermione gave Harry a feel-sorry-for-you look, as he grabbed his bag and walked to the back of the class. He sat next to Malfoy, who as scribbling something in his notebook.

"Now here is the fun part," the professor started excitedly, "I'm sure you're all eager to know how you'll choose the subject you will research. Well, I thought of something that will help you decide."

He moved towards a closet behind him, and opened it. The students watched closely as he pulled out a simple black hat.

"Sorry professor, but how exactly is that going to help us decide?" Dean asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Well, as you see, this is a hat, and it contains notes. Each note has a subject on it, and you're going to pick a note from the hat. Sounds simple, right? Not really, you see you're not those who'll be picking the notes, the notes will pick you! This hat is magical, the subjects in it will chose the people who are most fitting to work on it. So who wants to be the first one to pick?"

The couples started to approach the professor slowly, picking a note from the magical hat.

"So, your friends left you along Potter?" Harry heard a voice from next to him, and turned to look at Malfoy, staring at him mockingly.

"Shut up Malfoy." He muttered.

"You know, you'll have to learn to be nicer if you want us to be able to tolerate each other until the end of the year." Malfoy commented amusedly.

"That is if neither of us murders the other before the end of the year." Harry said quietly to himself, but assumed Malfoy heard him by the sound of chuckling next to him.

They watched quietly as each couple got their subject, Ron and Hermione got complex spells, Dean and Seamus got dark creatures, and so on.

Finally, the only couple left was Harry and Draco. They slowly got up and walked towards the front of the class. Standing next to the black hat, Harry noticed that the notes were twirling and mixing inside the hat, bumping into each other. Professor Crocklether instructed them to place their hands above the hat, and they did so. From the many notes in the hat, one folded note rose above all the rest, and floated in the air under their hands.

Malfoy grabbed it immediately and opened it. Harry read what was in it from behind his shoulder, and Professor Crocklether, who peeked from behind Harry, let out a sight of excitement.

"Death!" he read what was written on their note, "it's one of the most intriguing areas in the magical world and in general, as much as we know about it there's still so much more to find out!"

Harry felt a bit bothered by the subject they got, since it was an area that he was familiar with. Malfoy didn't say anything, but Harry noticed that he was biting his lip nervously.

"Oh look at the time!" said the professor, "Class is dismissed, and don't forget to start on your project this weekend!"

"Sorry you have to work with Malfoy mate." Ron told Harry when they were on their way back to the Gryffindor common room.

"It's alright. You two are a couple now, so I guess I should've known you would be working together." Harry admitted.

"This is going to be so much work! There's so much we don't know about complex spells, we will have to start tomorrow during our free period Ron." Hermione informed him.

"But Hermione, the first report isn't due until next week!" Ron exclaimed defensively.

"Exactly, we have less than a week! We've got to start as soon as possible." She said, and then added, "I'm going to the library to get us some research sources. I'll see the two of you later." And with that she walked away. Harry looked at Ron who mumbled to himself, "What have I gotten myself into?"

That evening in the common room, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting next to the fire place, after Ginny told them that she had to leave for rounds. With Sam.

But Harry remembered what Ginny told him that morning, about her and Sam being just friends. Besides, he trusted Ginny.

He retired to bed early, and went up go their dorms, which were still empty. He pulled the rails around his bed and jumped on it. From the corner of his eye he saw the edge of book of the half-blood prince, covered by some of his Hogwarts uniforms. Harry felt it was lying there, taunting him for not being able to figure out what was its meaning.

Harry grabbed the book, and opened it, lying on his back. Slowly, he started turning the pages, briefly reading the instruction in Snape's crumpled hand writing, written in dark black ink.

Then he stopped at one of the pages for a certain reason. The potion on this page was antidotes. Harry remembered that lesson very well, then one when while everyone were brewing up complex potions he simply gave Slughorn the bezoar stone. He noticed the line, "just shove a bezoar down their throat", written by the prince. He remembered how Snape's advice helped him save Ron's life a few weeks later. But that was not the reason he stopped on that page. The reason was that he noticed something else on the page that was impossible to miss.

At the bottom of the page there were a few more lines. Harry knew they have been recently added because unlike the dark black ink the entire book was written in, those lines where written in bright red that looked like blood. It was a poem.

_The one who's just and loyal might,_

_Have secrets that are not at sight. _

_After a life is taken,_

_Those at rest could be awaken. _

_Its power so strong the world it can destroy,_

_By bringing back an orphan boy._

**AN: so I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. **

**Pleaseeeeee leave reviews! If you liked it, didn't like it, or just want to write something random…**


	7. Chapter 7

**An: so first of all I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update… hope that you can forgive me..**

**And second of all, thank you for the reviews. **

**Special thanks to moi for the long detailed review, I love those! I made sure to fix Grawp's name, thank you for bringing that to my attention. About the poem, well it's not exactly what you described, so you'll have to wait and see about that :) **

**Okay, so this chapter isn't going to be that great, but I've already finished writing the next one, which will be much better, and it should be up in a day or two… **

Chapter 7- Conversation

_"The one who's just and loyal might,_

_Have secrets that are not at sight. _

_After a life is taken,_

_Those at rest could be awaken. _

_Its power so strong the world it can destroy,_

_By bringing back an orphan boy. _Hmmm_, _are you absolutely sure this poem wasn't here before?" Hermione asked.

It was nearly midnight and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the common room in front of the fireplace. For the last hour Hermione was busy reading and rereading the poem in the half blood prince's book.

"Yes, I have already told you a thousand times, I would've noticed." Harry replied annoyed by the fact that Hermione already asked him that question at least three times in the last minute. "Besides, the poem is written in different ink. "

"I don't get why Snape couldn't just write directly what he wanted us to do. Why did he have to complicate everything with riddles and mysterious poems?" Ron said tiredly.

"I thought about that too," Harry admitted, "he must have known that the ministry would find his will and search for dangerous things in the book before they give it to us, which they probably did. He needed to tell us something, this message is meant only to our eyes. He must have known that since I already knew what was in the book, I would be the only one to notice if something was added to it."

"Okay, I think we should just go line by line and try to figure out what each one means." Hermione said.

"Right, I agree." Harry said.

"Well, let's start from the beginning. _The one who's just and loyal might have secrets that are not at sight._ Who is the just and loyal? What are their secrets?" Hermione started.

"Err, I don't know… Maybe he meant the members of the Order of the Phoenix, I mean, they're loyal to Dumbledore, right?" Ron suggested.

"I don't know… Well let's continue to the next part, _after a life is taken those at rest could be awaken. _I'm guessing that means resurrection. What can he mean by that though?"

"Maybe… That there's another Horcrux out there." Ron said, slightly frightened.

"No, Snape didn't know about the Horcruxes." Harry said. "But he could mean something else, there're other ways to come back to life except for Horcruxes." He continued, thinking about the resurrection stone. But it was now in the forbidden forest, where only Harry could find it.

"Okay, let's see, _Its power so strong the world it can destroy by bringing back an orphan boy. _It's something that can destroy the world, so it's dangerous." Hermione stopped for a second then reread, "_By bringing back an orphan boy" _ then she turned to look at Harry.

"You think he meant me?" Harry asked surprised.

"Well, you are an orphan boy." Ron said.

"But you don't need bringing me back, I'm already here." Harry replied, frustrated.

"I think," Ron started saying while yawning, "that we should get some rest and think about this tomorrow."

That night Harry couldn't fall asleep. His head was filled with the book of the half-blood prince and Snape. To distract him he took the marauder's map out of his trunk.

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." He whispered, smiling to himself as he did.

He watched quietly as the black ink started appearing on the old peace of parchment, forming the map of the castle.

He watched the dots on the map that were barely moving. He saw that Ginny and Sam were in the head rooms, each in a different room much to Harry's relief. But there was one dot, though, that was wandering around the castle, where it shouldn't be at. Draco Malfoy was leaving the dungeons, where Harry knew was the Slytherin common room, and heading towards the second floor. His dot stopped in a hallway on the second floor, and stayed there for a while. Harry stared at the map confusedly, and then recognized the hallway. It was the same hallway he walked with Ginny on their way to breakfast, where they saw Malfoy talking to himself behind that suit of armor. For some reason he kept coming back to that hallway, like there was something he was looking for in there.

Slowly, exhaustion took over him, and he whispered "Mischief Mangled." He closed his eyes and fell asleep right away.

The rest of the week had gone by quickly. Harry barely saw Ginny, she was busy with head duties, and already started to freak out about the N.E. that were coming up later that year. Harry and Ron were glad to find out that for the students who were repeating their seventh year there were no N.E. , much to Hermione's disappointment.

During the week Ron and Hermione worked on their DADA research almost every day, which reminded Harry that he and Malfoy didn't even start. He didn't really know how to approach Malfoy about when they should work on their research, so he was very glad when Malfoy walked towards him at Friday dinner and said shortly,

"Be at the library tomorrow at two o'clock Potter." and walked away without waiting for an answer.

But death research wasn't the only thing Harry had on his mind. Saturday also happened to be when the trials for Gryffindor Quidditch team were held.

After four long hours of failed flying attempts by some second years, sweating, falling, and a lot of yelling and screaming from Harry's side, they came up with a Quidditch team Harry was very pleased with. It was almost the same team as Harry's sixths year, except that instead of Katie Bell Dean Thomas, who did a great job at the trials, was chosen to be chaser, and Harry noticed Luna was cheering him from the bleachers.

Harry came to lunch exhausted, then remembered he still had to do the DADA research with Malfoy and hurried to the library. When he got there Malfoy was already sitting at one of the tables with a pile of black scary looking books that Harry guessed were about death. When Harry sat at the table he noticed Malfoy was ruffling through pages with pictures of some disturbing pictures.

"You're late, Potter" Malfoy said while looking at the clock that was hung in the library, pointing at a minute past two.

"So basically this week's report should be about death on a basic level," Harry started, ignoring Malfoy's comment, "so I thought we could just start from the killing curse."

Malfoy closed the book without looking at Harry and took out a book from the bottom of the pile. Its name was "Avada Kedavra."

They started to work silently, each summarized about a different part of the book. Suddenly, Malfoy spoke.

"Pretty scary thing to think about, death." He commented quietly.

"It's the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more." Harry blurted out before he could control it.

"That's an interesting way to think about it." Malfoy said quietly.

"Sorry, that just came out of nowhere. It's something Dumbledore told me once and I guess it was like a reflex to blurt that out." Harry explained.

He had no idea why he said that, especially not to Malfoy. He half expected from Malfoy to throw some sarcastic and insulting remark about that, but he didn't say a thing. He just continued working. They didn't talk after that and Harry thought that this might have been the first real serious conversation they ever had.

**AN: Reviews are most welcomed! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Chapter 8 everyone!**

**Again, thank you for the reviews. Thanks for the guest reviewer, Gwenlynn, and don't worry, Harry isn't going to get a crush on Draco, but you are going to see Draco a lot in this chapter :) **

**Hope you like it!**

Chapter 8- A Golden Cup 

Draco's POV

Draco woke up in his dorm the next day, his eyes blinded by the light that was flowing in the room. _And so begins another week at Hogwarts_, he thought to himself. He had to admit he had done some really impressing progress in the week that had passed, but he still had so much left to do. This time he promised to himself that he will fulfill the mission he received. The last mission he had to do in Hogwarts didn't end too well. Murdering the headmaster. But he was a different person back then, a child. This time he won't let his master down.

You'd think that there wouldn't be a more difficult task than murdering someone right? Well, you're wrong about that. Because the mission Draco had to do now was much harder than that. Furthermore, the price he will pay if he didn't succeed will be far more devastating.

Slowly he got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. His seventh year roommates stared at him as he made his way out of the room. Yes, he had to sleep with seventh years, actual seventh years, since no one from his year came back to Hogwarts. Draco knew that these boys were talking about him behind his back, that they hated him for being a Death Eater. But honestly, he didn't care. He didn't come to Hogwarts this year to make new friends, he had more important things to do.

He left his dorms and started walking towards the great hall for breakfast. Then another idea came into his mind. He still had time until DADA in first period. He could skip breakfast and come back to the hallway in the second floor. It's breakfast so no one will be there. Perfect.

When he reached the hallway he walked towards the portrait of the lady sitting on an armchair, sipping from a golden cup. He wondered how come the liquid in that cup is never over.

"I see you're back," the lady in the portrait said, sighing.

Harry's POV

The next day Harry walked with Ron and Hermione to breakfast with the scroll of the death research in his bag. He read the report he and Draco wrote on Saturday and he had to admit it was pretty good.

While they walked to breakfast Ron was talking about Quidditch enthusiastically.

"With the new team we should definitely win the cup this year, right Harry?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, of course." Harry mumbled, smiling. He had already set practices twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

As they entered a hallway Harry heard muffled voices, and stopped. Ron and Hermione stopped after him. He heard a familiar voice talking, and listened quietly.

"You don't understand," Harry recognized the voice immediately, it was Malfoy, "you have to tell me what it is. If you don't something really bad may happen."

"Are you threatening me young boy?" It was a different voice now, of a woman Harry did not know. She didn't sound like a student, so Harry assumed she was one of the teachers, although no teacher at Hogwarts had a voice like that. He looked at Ron and Hermione, but they looked just as confused as he was.

"No, that is not what I meant. It's just… I need to know what it is, it's really important." Malfoy said.

"I've already told you, I don't know what you're talking about." The lady said again. Ron scratched his nose. Harry looked at him and already knew what was coming, but still he had no chance to stop it.

"Yes, you do, I-" and that was when it happened. Ron covered his mouth with his hands and sneezed loudly. Hermione shot him an angry look.

Harry listened for a brief second and noticed that Malfoy stopped talking. He sighed. _We've been caught _he thought. He motioned to Ron and Hermione that they can keep walking and they did. As they reached the hallway they saw Malfoy standing there, next to a suit of armor. Harry met Malfoy's eyes for a second, than Malfoy turned away and left.

"What was that about?" Ron asked confusedly.

But Harry didn't answer him. He searched the hallway for the female voice, the one Malfoy was talking to. Then he recognized the place. It was the same hallway on the second floor he saw Malfoy visiting on the Marauder's map, and the same hallway Harry found Malfoy talking to himself near the portrait.

But maybe he wasn't talking to himself then. The first time Harry saw him there, and this time as well Malfoy was talking to-

"The portrait." Harry completed his thoughts out loud.

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked

"Malfoy was talking to the portrait of the woman." Harry told her. The three of them approached the portrait of a woman, sitting on an armchair, sipping from a golden cup.

"Oh, more company I see." She said once she saw them. She didn't seem to be in a good mood.

"We need to know what the student who was just here wanted." Harry asked her

"He wanted information that I do not have." she said slowly, taking another sip from her cup. Harry wondered if she ever needed to go to the bathroom.

"What information?" Harry asked puzzled.

"I'm afraid I have to go." She said, placing the cup a small table besides her, and left the picture.

"Wait!" Harry yelled after her, but there was no answer. He knew that she was already visiting another portrait.

So Malfoy was trying to get information from that lady, information that she claims not to have. But clearly, she was hiding something.

Harry sighed, frustrated then he looked at the golden cup again. It had two long handles, and Harry noticed that there was something engraved on it. He squinted to see what it was. It was a badger.

Suddenly it clicked. Harry felt like there was a dark part of his brain that just lit up in a second.

Without saying a word he sprinted towards the Gryffindor common room, not even checking if Ron and Hermione were following him.

When he reached the common room he ran up to their dorms and took the book of the Half-blood Prince out of his suitcase. He opened at the page of the poem.

Ron and Hermione were waiting for him at the common room when he came down, expecting an explanation.

"I figured out the poem." Harry told them, "and I think I know what Malfoy wanted from the portrait."

"Please, do tell." Hermione said, and so he did.

"The lady in the portrait was drinking from a golden cup. I knew it was familiar but just now I realized where from. It had a badger on it, it was the cup of Helga Hufflepuff."

"So, what you're trying to say," Hermione started, "is that the lady we just talked to was Helga Hufflepuff."

"I'm pretty sure of it, yes."

"So, Malfoy was talking to Helga Hufflepuff," Ron started, "what does that have to do with the poem in the book?"

"I'm getting to it. Okay, so I reread the poem again and I realized that the first line connects everything. _The just and loyal might have secrets that are not at sight. _We tried to figure out who's just and loyal, then I remembered the many songs we've heard from the sorting hat about the traits of each house. The Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are wise, Slytherins are cunning, and Hufflepuff are-"

"Just and loyal." Hermione completed, her face lit up.

"Exactly, and the rest of that sentence, _have secrets that are not at sight. _What if Snape's talking about Helga Hufflepuff's secrets? What if that's what Malfoy was trying to convince her to tell him."

There was a break, Ron and Hermione looked doubtful. Before they could say their doubts out loud Harry continued.

"Then I thought of the next lines. _After a life is taken those at rest could be awaken. Its power so strong the world it can destroy by bringing back an orphan boy. _I think you were right Hermione, about the resurrection. Snape warns us about an object that can bring people back to life. But Snape didn't warn us about bringing back people in general. He tells us it has power to bring back an orphan boy, who can destroy the world. A dead and dangerous orphan boy, one who has a habit of rising from the dead. I think you already know who I have in mind."

"Voldemort" Ron said, although it didn't need to be said. They all knew it already.

"Maybe you're right," Hermione said, "but I still don't understand how it has to do with Malfoy."

"Do you remember that Voldemort's body was stolen? Well I think it has something to do with this, that it's all connected. I think that the object can bring Voldemort back to life if it has Voldemort's body. I also think that the object has something to do with Hufflepuff, or more accurately Hufflepuff's secrets, and that's why Hufflepuff is mentioned in the poem. That is why Malfoy is trying to get information from the portrait, he wants to find the object so he can bring Voldemort back to life. Think about it, why else would he come back to Hogwarts? He had a mission, and Snape knew about it. He tried to warn us about it so we can stop him."

Ron and Hermione seemed convinced but startled.

"So what are we going to do?" Ron asked.

"We should figure out what his plan is." This time it was Hermione who answered.

"How would we do that?" Harry asked.

"We should go to the portrait the next time he tries to get in the Hufflepuff common room. We could use the map to follow him." she told Harry, who nodded.

At breakfast they were announced by McGonagall that the DADA class is canceled, and that next week they would just have to turn in two reports. Harry was glad he didn't have to face Malfoy at class today. He spent most of his day with Ginny at the common room. They haven't told Ginny about Malfoy yet, or about the poem at all. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to tell her, he didn't want her involved in anything that had to do with Voldemort.

It was about 11 o'clock and Harry and Ron were up in their dorms. Dean and Seamus were already asleep and Harry had the Marauder's Map open on his bed, looking at Malfoy, who was currently in his dorms in the Slytherin common room.

"Where do you think she went today, Helga Hufflepuff?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Don't know, she must have another portrait she can go to, like Phineas Nigellus, he had his portrait in the headmaster room, and another portrait in Sirius's house." Harry explained.

After a few seconds of silence, "He's moving!" Harry exclaimed suddenly, "Malfoy is leaving his dorms."

They both rushed downstairs to the common room. Fortunately Hermione was sitting there reading a book.

"What are the two of you doing down here?" she asked them, surprised.

"Malfoy is back to the second floor hallway." Harry answered.

"Already?" she asked, "So, what's our plan?"

"Well," Harry started. Truthfully he thought he still had a lot of time to think of something.

"There is no plan." Ron answered instead of him.

"We should probably just go there and-" Harry started.

"And do what? Confront him? We're not even sure if our theory's correct. Maybe Malfoy is trying to get information from Helga Hufflepuff for a whole different reason, and we were wrong about the meaning of the poem." Hermione said.

"I have a suggestion," Ron started, and Harry and Hermione turned to look at him, "why won't we just go spy on Malfoy and see what he's saying to the portrait this time. If he says anything that gives in that we were right, we come out and confront him, try to figure out what his plan is."

"Okay, I like that plan." Harry said.

"I don't" Hermione replied, "but I guess we don't have that many choices do we?"

So the three of them sneaked out of the hole of the fat lady, and quietly walked to the second floor, luckily they didn't meet anyone on their way. When they got there they heard voices. Harry stuck to the wall and listened.

"I don't know what you want from me young boy, just leave me alone." It was Helga Hufflepuff, her voiced sounded nervous, scared.

"Listen, I understand it must be hard for you talking about this," it was Malfoy's voice, he sounded begging, "but you need to tell me everything you know, it's really important."

"It's the last time I'm going to say it before I leave, I've never heard of the object you described, I know nothing about it."

"Not necessarily an object," Malfoy started hopefully, "anything that has something to do with resurrection or-"

Once he said that Harry met Ron and Hermione's eyes. They weren't wrong.

"I must leave." She said, and silence followed.

'Now' Harry mouthed Ron and Hermione.

They entered the hallway with their wands pointing forward. The light from Malfoy's wand was turned from the empty portrait towards them, and Harry saw him face. A few expressions passed on Malfoy's face at once, surprise, fear, confuse, but then he replaced them with his usual cool and easy expression. He faced Harry Ron and Hermione and pointed his wand at their direction.

"What are the three of you doing in here on this fine night?" He asked easily, but Harry could tell he was stressed.

"I could ask you the same thing, Malfoy." Harry replied.

"I just fancied a nice night stroll-" he began, but was interrupted by Ron.

"Give up the act Malfoy, we know everything."

"And what exactly do you mean, Weasley, by we know everything?" Malfoy asked him with contempt.

"We know you've been talking to the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff so you can get information of an object that can bring Voldemort back to life." Harry replied, "We know you have something to do with the theft of Voldemort's body from Hogwarts."

The quiet expression on Malfoy's face changed into one of alarm and fear.

"How did you know about Hufflepuff? Did… did Snape tell you anything?" He asked confusedly.

"Snape told us just enough to know what you're up to." Hermione shot at him.

"You don't understand this is not what you think it is. First of all, I had nothing to do with the theft of The Dark Lord's body. Second of all, I was helping Snape, I'm still helping him. I-"he started, then froze. He was looking at something that was behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry followed his gaze and looked behind him. Mrs. Norris, Argus Filch's cat, stood there.

"I can tell you whatever it is that you want to know, Potter, but not here." Malfoy said, then turned around and walked towards a big red tapestry. He slightly moved it and exposed a passageway, then faced Harry, Ron, and Hermione, motioning them to follow him.

"Why for the name of Merlin should we trust you?" Ron asked him angrily.

They stopped for a moment, they heard steps from nearby. "Anyone there my sweet?" they heard Filch calling to Mrs. Norris from distance.

"You probably shouldn't trust me, but do you rather stay here?" He asked, but didn't wait for an answer. He disappeared behind the tapestry.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood in their place frozen for a few seconds. Harry knew that short cut, he used it numerous times on his sixth year. He also knew that this short cut was the only way to promise that Filch won't catch them. Ron and Hermione looked at Harry questionably.

"What have we got to lose?" He said, then entered the passageway through the tapestry, Ron and Hermione after him, following him into the darkness.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I know it took me forever to update, but here's the next chapter. Hope you like it! **

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Chapter 9- Trust

After exiting the short cut, Malfoy led them silently to the room of requirement. He passed in front of the wall three times, his eyes closed, and on the third time a door appeared. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed him into the room as the doors were close behind them. It was an ordinary looking room, it had a fireplace and a few comfortable looking chairs. Malfoy explained them that he asked for a place to hide. Then he sat down on one of the chairs, looking up at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, expecting them to sit down. They remained standing.

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"We want to know everything. How you found out about this object that connects to Hufflepuff, what is it, and how you are connected to Snape." Harry replied.

"I don't really know where to begin." Malfoy started.

"I suggest you start at the beginning." Hermione commented impatiently.

Malfoy took a big breath and started speaking, as though he was reading from a script and he has practiced this speech before.

"It all started on my sixth year here. I assume you lot already know all about how The Dark Lord gave me a mission to kill Dumbledore. Truth be told, I was excited at first. He chose me from everyone else, I was selected to do a mission that even he couldn't do. I tried all kind of things, but you already know, don't you? About the cursed necklace, about the poisoned wine. But both of these attempts failed because those objects got into the wrong hands."

Next to Harry, Ron frowned.

"And if that wasn't enough, Snape was on my back too. He claimed he was trying to help me, but at the time I thought he just tried to steal the glory. Besides I was too proud to accept his help. But all of my plans were nothing next to the vanishing cabinets, one in Hogwarts, and a twin one at Borgin and Burk's. All I needed to do was to fix it. And my plan worked perfectly. I got the deatheaters in the castle, they were distracting everyone from the order of the phoenix. Madam Rosmerta told me when Dumbledore got to Hogsmeade and all I had to do was wait until he appartes on the astronomy tower. The only problem was that when the time came, I couldn't do it. I thought I was capable of murder but I didn't realize how hard it was going to be, taking someone's life away from them. Until the other deatheaters arrived I had already given up, I wasn't going to kill Dumbledore. Then everything became really complicated. Snape showed up and it all happened so fast. One moment Dumbledore was standing there, the next he was falling down the tower. I was in total shock. I got panicked, I couldn't move. Snape grabbed my arm, and took me out of there. We ran as quickly as we could, there were curses all over the place, but I wasn't scared, I was still shocked, it was like my whole body was petrified, except from my feet who were automatically running. Then you chased us," he looked at Harry, "but eventually we made it to the lawn and we apparated, we were gone."

"We already know all of that," Harry told him, "and it doesn't explain why you're working for Snape."

"I was about to get to that part." He started, annoyed, "We got to the our house. He was there. Snape sent me up to my room, and I didn't resist. I ran as quickly as I could. I heard voices from downstairs talking, then after about an hour Snape came into my room."

And Malfoy told them how the things happened.

_Snape entered the room slowly and closed the doors behind him. Draco was sitting at his bed and looked up at him. Snape's face was sealed, no visible expression was on them. _

"_The Dark Lord has reached a decision. You and your family will not be punished, and your father should be freed from Azkaban. The Dark Lord is out for a few hours, but he will be back, and I believe he will be staying with you for the summer. I'd say, considering tonight's turnout, that everything's fine." _

"_Everything's fine? How could you possible say that?" Draco told him, fighting the tears that were trying to come out of his eyes the entire night. No matter what he will not cry in front of Snape. "You just killed the headmaster! And I helped you, we're both murderers! How can everything ever be fine? This is horrible we're monsters, and you're the only person I thought was good, but turns out I was wrong."_

_Draco didn't know what made him say these things. Snape just proved to him that he was capable of murder, so he was surely capable to go to the Dark Lord and tell him everything Draco just said. He expected Snape to yell at him. To tell him that he was a fool. But instead, Snape's sealed expression suddenly faded, and one of frustration and despair replace it, an expression Draco has never seen on Snape's face before. _

"_I know Draco, watching someone die is a horrible thing to witness. But you need to know something. You weren't responsible for Dumbledore's death." He said, his voice low, but full with concern. _

"_Yes I was. If it wasn't for my plan to get the deatheaters into the castle he wouldn't be dead. And don't tell me that I had no choice and that he'd kill my parents, because that doesn't help." Draco whispered. _

"_That's not what I meant. Dumbledore dying wasn't your fault because," Snape took a breath and continued, "Because he knew you were trying to kill him. He was going to die anyway, he had one year to live, so he thought he'd just let you kill him."_

"_How do you know that? Have you been-"_

"_Working for Dumbledore this entire time? Yes. The truth is that Dumbledore told me to kill him so you don't have to." Snape said, almost inaudibly. _

"_That still doesn't change things. I still was the one who made this plan. I'm still a murderer, even if Dumbledore's death wasn't my fault." He said. Finally, the tears caught up with him and he couldn't hold them back anymore. So he cried, like a child, not even caring that he is embarrassing himself in front of Snape. _

"_You're not a bad person Draco, I know you're not." Snape told him. _

"_Well, I can't agree with you on that."_

_Snape stopped for a second, considering what he was about to say next. Finally he spoke._

"_Then help me."_

"_I beg your pardon?"_

"_You wish to be a good person? Then you can help me make sure that The Dark Lord does not win this war, make sure that thousands of innocent people will not be slaughtered. You think you can do it?"_

"_How can I possibly help you?" He asked confusedly. _

"_One day, after The Dark Lord's dead, and I really hope that day would come, I may not be alive. If that's the case, I need you to do something for me. Can I trust you with this?"_

_Draco nodded._

"_I was informed of a certain object. I don't know what it is yet, but I know it's something dark and powerful, and that it can bring people back to life after they died. The Dark Lord has heard of this object, and he could use it to come back to life. Now listen to me Draco, this is a secret, not even Dumbledore knew about this. What I'm asking of you is, if I do die before The Dark Lord does, to find this object, and make sure it's destroyed."_

_After a few moments of silence, Draco asked, "I don't understand. How am I supposed to find something that belongs to The Dark Lord?"_

"_It never belonged to him, The Dark Lord has probably never even seen it. You have to find it before anyone else does. Can I trust you with this Draco?" Snape asked._

"_Yes" that one simple word came out of his mouth, and Draco knew that this one word will change his life. _

"_All I know about this object is that it's hidden somewhere within the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, and that it has something to do with Hufflepuff. What I need you to do in the meanwhile is to act normal, like none of this ever happened, understood?" Draco nodded._

_Snape got up to leave, but before he could Draco suddenly called, "Wait, sir, how do even know about this object?"_

_Snape looked alarmed, as though he's been caught off guard. "It doesn't matter. Why should it be to any importance to you?" he asked defensively._

"_No reason." Draco said quickly._

_With not another word, Snape walked out of the room, leaving Draco seating on the bed, staring after him, his head filled with thoughts. _

Everyone were quiet now, processing the story they'd just heard.

"That's it I'd told you everything, now it's your turn." Malfoy told them.

"Not so fast, Malfoy. There're still a few things you didn't explain. Like, if you were working for Snape since the summer of last year, then why were you trying to take Harry to Voldemort during the battle when we were in the room of requirement?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Well, Snape told me to act normal, and I did, that was the normal thing to do. It was Crabbe's idea to go after you, so the normal thing to do was to agree. Besides, I never thought we'd actually succeed in that, I just never thought that Crabbe would get so carried away and..." His voice broke.

"So, like I said, I told you everything. Now you need to tell me how you know about this object and what have Snape told you?" Malfoy asked them.

"How do we know you didn't just make this whole thing up? That you're not working for Voldemort and are just saying that to find out what we know?" Ron asked him.

"Unbelievable Weasley, I've just told you everything I know, what else is it going to take for you to trust me?" he asked and tried to meet Harry's eyes, who was looking at the floor, refusing to meet Malfoy's gaze. When nobody answered he said, "Well, you've made it clear. When you want my help let me know." He got up and left the room.

"Can you believe him?" Hermione said angrily.

"Definitely" Ron answered, but Harry didn't say anything.

"Harry?" Hermione asked confusedly.

"Right, definitely" Harry mumbled. He was thinking of the story Malfoy has just told them, that made no sense whatsoever. Still, he felt guilty.

"Please tell me that you didn't buy that pathetic story." Said Ron.

"No, of course not, but-" He started.

"But?"

"Well, if he wasn't telling the truth, then how would he know that Dumbledore was dying and that him and Snape had made a plan for Snape to kill Dumbledore?"

"I don't know Harry," Hermione started, "but Malfoy's story cannot be the answer. Do you honestly believe that in one night he'd just turned from evil to good?"

"I guess not."

"And don't forget mate, it's still Malfoy that we're talking about." Ron told him.

"I suppose you're right." He said unwillingly, unable to shake off the twitch of guilt in his stomach.

They next day was their first potions class that year. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived at the class, Slughorn, who continued teaching the subject, complained to Harry about McGonagall not allowing him to continue the Slug Club this year.

"I know you must be awfully upset my boy, I know I am, but according to the new headmistress, in this school there won't be allowed any 'unequal and offensive' clubs." The old professor said angrily. "Well take a sit, won't you?"

Harry sat next to Ron on the front row and took his book out. Clover and Ian Spekleton entered, and just as Ian tried to shut the door, Malfoy appeared from behind him, and entered the classroom. He walked to the back of the class without looking at them.

"Today we'll be studying a quite complex potion, a bloodroot potion. Now I must warn you, it's very poisonous, so don't drink it, although I suppose none of you planned on doing so, and don't let it touch your skin because it can cause some very unpleasant symptoms. As bloodroot flowers, which are the main ingredient of this potion as you can see on page 53, are very rare flowers I could only get my hands on very few of them, so I would need you to work in pairs for this one. Let's see, Mr. Thomas, you can work with Ms. Patil, Mr. Finnigan you'll work with Ms. Brown, Mr. Weasley, you and Mr. Spekleton can work together. Mr. Potter, you can work with Mrs. Spekleton. And I guess that leaves… Mrs. Granger, you'll be working with Mr. Malfoy. Alright, get to work everybody, and remember to be careful."

Harry looked at Hermione who seemed very angry.

"Don't worry, I can't be that bad." Ron tried to comfort her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Easy for you to say, you're not stuck with Malfoy." She said frustrated

"It really can't be that bad Hermione, just ignore him and work on the potion." Harry told her.

She sighted and when to the back of the room.

Ron left the table as well as Clover Spekleton came towards him smiling, her brown curly hair swinging as she walked.

"Hey Harry," she said cheerfully as she sat down next to him "remember me from the train?"

"Yeah of course," he answered," so do you want to start cutting the bloodroot flowers when I get the rest of the ingredients ready?"

"Sure."

They started working silently and Harry asked casually, "So how do you like Hogwarts so far?"

"Fine I guess. Everyone's so nice, and the teachers are great. Besides, I'm really excited for the first Hogsmeade trip this weekend."

"Have you ever been to Hogsmeade?"

"No this would be my first time."

"You'll love it, it's incredible."

"So I've been told."

Silence again. Harry noticed Ron and Clover's brother working on the other end of the room.

"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you and your brother go to Hogwarts on the first place, I mean, why did your father chose for you to be homeschooled?" he asked, then saw Clover was uncomfortable and said quickly, "I'm sorry if it's personal, I probably shouldn't have asked this it's really none of my business."

"No, it's alright, I don't mind talking about it. The truth is that my mother died the year before Ian and I were supposed to go to Hogwarts and it all was just too much for my father. He wanted us to stay at home with him because with my mom gone he couldn't bare being on his own all the time…" she trailed off.

"I'm so sorry." Harry said, feeling guilty for bringing up the subject.

"It's okay, you didn't know." She said quietly, and that was when it happened. A horrible scream was heard from the back of the room, one of terrible pain. Harry knew who the voice belonged to, but still hoped he was wrong. But when he turned around in panic he saw that he wasn't.

Hermione was on her knees, holding her arm, who had what looked like a huge red stain. Steams were coming out of her hand and it was as though her skin was burnt. Beside her was a cauldron with the bloodroot potion, spilled on the floor.

"Dear God!" Slughorn exclaimed from behind.

Malfoy was standing next to her told her, "Hermione, I'm so sorry-"

"Don't you dare get near me." she screamed at him.

"I didn't do it on purpose-" he started, but it was too late. Ron and Harry already grabbed her and helped her up.

"Take her to the hospital wings quickly, she's losing blood!" Slughorn said.

Ron and Harry carried her out of the room, leaving behind a startled class.

Hermione's POV

"And I guess that leaves… Mrs. Granger, you'll be working with Mr. Malfoy. Alright, get to work everybody, and remember to be careful." Slughorn finished cheerfully.

'Just Great. Me and Malfoy working on a potion together, just what I needed.' Hermione thought.

"Don't worry, I can't be that bad." Ron tried to comfort her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Easy for you to say, you're not stuck with Malfoy." She said frustrated

"It really can't be that bad Hermione, just ignore him and work on the potion." Harry told her.

She sighted and went to the back of the room.

"Granger" he greeted her scornfully.

"Let's try to work without talking to each other, can you do that Malfoy?"

"Alright, I got it, you don't trust me, and you're angry. Listen Granger, I know after everything I'd done to the three of you I shouldn't be trustworthy, but you have to believe me, I've changed."

"Are you still talking?" Hermione asked angrily.

"Fine, whatever." Malfoy said.

"And you know what, you're right. I really shouldn't trust you after everything you've done, and so far, all you've been doing is telling us that. You haven't done anything to prove to us that we should trust you." she said angrily. 'That would shut him up' she thought happily.

She was finished cutting the bloodroot flowers, and put them in the potion. Malfoy started steering the potion and Hermione sent her hand to take a few more ingredients. Malfoy was still steering, but he tilted to cauldron to one edge until it fell over, the bloodroot potion splashed on Hermione's arm, and the cauldron fell to the floor.

For a second she felt nothing, then came pain, strong and unimaginable. She felt like her arm was on fire, that someone was stabbing it with a knife, and that her skin was torn apart all at once. When she looked at it she simply fell to her knees. It was the most horrific sight she's ever seen. Her skin was gone, and steams were coming out of her flesh, the potion cutting deeper and deeper.

She heard professor Slughorn screaming something but she didn't care what it was. She just screamed in horror and pain.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry-" she heard Malfoy's voice from above her and a wave of rage took over her.

"Don't you dare get near me." she screamed at him, this is his way to show her to trust him?

"I didn't do it on purpose-" he started again, but gladly Harry and Ron reached her and carried her to the Hospital wing. She remembered them carrying her out of the class, and someone said she was losing blood. At some point the pain became too strong.

Then everything turned black.

**Hope you liked! REVIEW!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Sorry for the long gaps between updates, I really will try to update more often from now on, but I didn't have much time to write, and I am also a very lazy person… (: **

Chapter 10- Of Lies and Glacio Snakes

Harry's POV

It was Tuesday, and to Harry that meant Quidditch trial day. You'd think that following the recent events Quidditch wouldn't be as important to him, but he couldn't ignore the upcoming match against Slytherin that was approaching them in a month.

"Alright everybody," Harry called at the end of the practice as they all landed, "All in all we were very good, you really improved from the last time, I'd say we're ready for the match." He said, and everybody cheered.

At the changing room Ron approached him, "Have you visited Hermione today?" he asked Harry. Ever since the accident in potions Hermione has been in the Hospital Wing.

"Yeah, before the practice, she's much better actually, Madam Pomfrey says she should be out in a few days." Harry replied as they left the changing room and started walking towards the castle.

"Good, I'll probably go visit her later." Ron said, then added after a few seconds, "Have you seen Malfoy anywhere lately?"

"As a matter of fact I didn't" Harry said, he hasn't seen Malfoy the whole since the accident in potion.

"Me neither, he's probably planning his next scheme." Ron said hatefully and Harry just nodded. He still wasn't sure about Malfoy lying to them. Even after what happened in potions, he thought Malfoy might be telling the truth, he did say it was an accident. He didn't know where this surprising change of heart came from, not too long ago he still hated Malfoy. When he told this to Hermione this morning in the Hospital wing he received the usual lecture of "You seriously buy that farfetched story of his? He clearly made it up" and "It's Malfoy, the same Malfoy that we hated for the last seven year, the ferret, the deatheater, do you truly believed he's changed?"

But still, there were holes in what Hermione said, holes Harry couldn't just ignore. How did he know about Dumbledore and Snape's plan, and why would he purposely hurt Hermione if he wanted to gain their trust because he's working for Voldemort. But Harry knew that he would get the same lecture about Malfoy from Ron if he said any of that, so he just nodded.

"You guys, wait up!" they heard Ginny calling from behind them.

They waited for her then walked together to the castle. When they reached the entrance the said goodbye to Ron, who was headed to the Hospital Wing, and they made their way to the Gryffindor tower.

"You know, I never really understood how the three of you can be such close friends." Ginny started saying all of a sudden when they were walking. Harry didn't know where she was going with that so he let her keep talking. "You shared all those adventures and secrets and you were so close it seemed as though nothing could ever tare you apart. You were in such a strong friendship that I often looked at you and got so jealous of your friendship, wishing I could be a part of it. Even during my fifth year, when we started dating, and I got closer to you, I was never really a part of your small trio. I knew you wouldn't completely let me in because it was too dangerous with Voldemort during the war." She stopped for a second.

"And then this year started, you said that you'd come back to Hogwarts for another year, and I thought, 'great, now I finally get a chance to truly be their friend, the danger is finally over and they don't need to protect me anymore'."

"I have a feeling you're going somewhere with this." Harry responded.

"What I'm trying to say is that, I know I haven't spent that much time with you lately because of head duty and pressure at school, but I still want us to be friends. But this year you have to tell me the whole truth, you can't cut me out again. It's over, Voldemort's gone, so there shouldn't be any secrets now. So I'm going to ask you something, Harry, and I want you to tell me the truth, is there something going on with Malfoy that I should know about?"

He didn't expect this. He didn't know what he expected, but it wasn't this.

"What do you mean?" he asked her, trying not to show any emotions.

"Well, I remember that in our first week we caught him in a hallway on the second floor talking to himself and I always hear the you, Ron, and Hermione mentioning his name, and today after the practice I heard Ron saying it again. So tell me honestly, is there something going on, or am I just being paranoid?" she asked.

For a fraction of a second Harry considered telling Ginny the whole truth, about the poem, about the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, about Malfoy's story, about everything. Then he looked in her face, and felt the same thing as he did whenever he looked at her. What she said about Voldemort being dead was not completely true, not if they were right about the object mentioned in the poem. And he'll never forgive himself if anything happens to her.

"Nothing is going on Gin, I promise." He lied. She smiled in relief and kissed him gently on the lips he kissed her back, feeling horrible guilt. But he had to lie to her. It was the only way of keeping her safe.

Hermione's POV

"Don't move" Madam Pomfrey told Hermione as she spread the ointment on her hand, "The pain will be gone in a few moments."

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly and ignore her arm that now seemed to be on fire. The good thing though is that her hand looked normal, no scars or anything, but the potion spilled on her still affected her underneath her skin, so she had to put on this burning ointment for a few more days, then she'll be free to go.

Slowly, the pain in her hand stopped and she smiled with relief.

"I'll get you some pumpkin juice." Madam Pomfrey offered happily.

Just as she left the room Ron came in.

"Hey" Hermione said, smiling, "How was your practice?"

"Good, we're going to kick some Slytherin butts this match." He said

Hermione rolled her eyes. Boys…

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Better, I really wish I could get out of here though, I'm sick of this place."

"Maybe we can arrange that."

"What do you mean by-" she started, but Ron cut her when Madam Pomfrey came in.

"Hello Madam Pomfrey." Ron said cheerfully.

"Good evening Mr. Weasley." She said.

"Any chance I can borrow your patience for a couple of hours?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know, I'm not sure if she's strong enough to get out of the Hospital yet." She said.

"I certainly am, I feel really well," Hermione assured her, "and you said for yourself that I'm pretty healthy, I just need to take the medicine."

She thought for a few moments, sighed, and then said, "I assume it's alright, but just for a couple of hours, then you come back for the night."

"Thank you so much!" Hermione said, and jumped out of the bed.

"Let's go" Ron told her, and they left the Hospital Wings.

They went out of the castle to the green lawn when evening began to fall.

"So what have you been doing in those last two days?" Ron asked her as they walked.

"Nothing much, really"

"So you haven't been doing homework and memorizing spell book?" he said jokingly

"No" she said laughing, and gave him a slap on his head.

They both laughed and she said, "Thanks for this, Ron, I really needed to get out of there."

The continued walking, holding hands. All of a sudden Ron stopped, "Look who's there."

Hermione looked and saw Malfoy walking near the forbidden forest. He noticed them and walked towards them.

"What do you want?" Ron asked angrily.

"Calm down Weasley, I just wanted to apologize." He started, "Granger I really am so-"

"I don't want apologies from you, Malfoy." Hermione shot at him.

"I get it, you still don't trust me but-" he started and all of a sudden he sopped, and stared at something behind them as though he was seeing a ghost.

Hermione looked behind her and saw nothing. "What is it?" she asked annoyed.

"Don't move" Malfoy whispered not moving his lips, taking his wand out.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ron screamed, taking his wand out as well.

"Stop moving! On the ground!"

Hermione looked at the grass, and almost laughed in scorn.

"It's just a lizard" she said with contempt, looking at the tiny blue lizard with black stripes across it.

"It's a Glacio Snake." Malfoy said, still pointing his wand on the lizard, which was coming near Hermione's foot.

He waved his wand without making a sound and a flash of blue light was shot from it. As the spell shot the lizard a blue fog came from its direction which caused the three of them to cough. When the fog faded the lizard lied dead on the ground.

"What the hell?" Ron said angrily.

"That was a Glacio Snake, it must have come out of the forbidden forest. I know a thing or two about them because my dad used to have one at our house. It was kept in a cage, and for a reason. If one of those bites you then, well, you freeze over. You'd actually turn into a chunk of ice. And there's no way back if that happens. So basically I just saved your life." He said, and a silence took over.

"You're welcomed" he said, and walked away.

After he was gone Ron said, "Do you think he was telling the truth?"

"There's only one way to find out." She said, then started running, Ron following her.

She led him to the library, and he sat on one of the chairs, and watched her looking for a book. She came to the table a few moments later with a big green books that was names, _Snakes from A to Z. _

She went through the pages for a minute or so until she stopped on a page with a picture of the lizard they'd just seen. Ron came near her and they read together.

_The Glacio Snake_

_This snake, found mostly in the area of trees, has a very irregular poison, and is amongst the most dangerous of magical snakes. It's between five to ten inches, and is blue with black stripes. It looks like a lizard, but it got its name for his poison, and the affect it brings. Its food is mostly insects in its surroundings. A bite of the Glacio Snake will not kill a man, but it will turn him into a lump of ice. Such effects are irreversible. _

They finished reading and looked at each other.

"Malfoy just saved our lives." Hermione said.

And that's what they told Harry that evening in the common room.

"So, do we consider him trustworthy now?" Harry asked confusedly.

"I don't know, but I think it's worth a shot to try and work together with him. He might be able to help us." Hermione said.

"Alright, I guess we talk to him tomorrow."

"Hey, Ron, isn't that Errol outside the window?" Hermione called suddenly in surprise.

"What's that bloody bird doing in here?"

"It's probably a letter from your parents." Harry said.

They let Errol in, and he landed on a table, carrying a letter. Ron took it and opened it, reading it with Harry and Hermione.

_Dear Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione_

_I hope you all are having a nice time at Hogwarts. We have some good news. George has come back home, and he's not alone… it's too complicated to explain in a letter, but you all will see when you come home for Christmas. We are looking forward to see you! _

_Love,_

_Molly. _


	11. Chapter 11

_Dear Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione_

_I hope you all are having a nice time at Hogwarts. We have some good news. George has came back home, and he's not alone… it's too complicated to explain in a letter, but you all will see when you come home for Christmas. We are looking forward to see you! _

_Love,_

_Molly._

"What did she mean when she said that George wasn't alone?" Ginny asked puzzled the next day when they showed her the letter at breakfast. They were surprised to get this letter after what happened with George's leaving before they left for Hogwarts.

"No idea, I guess we'll find out at Christmas. Hermione, do you mind handing me those pancakes?" Ron said.

"Anyway I got to get to class, see you lot later." She said, giving harry a quick kiss on the lips, as Ron twisted his face in disgust.

"Oh, just grow up already." Hermione said while smacking him on his arm.

Hermione waited for Ginny to leave before she said, "So are we going to talk to Malfoy today?"

"I guess, it was the two of you who said it was worth a shot trying to work with him. We have a free period now, so we should just go talk to him after breakfast." Harry replied.

"We should agree on what we say to him first, though." Ron commented.

"What do you mean?" Harry and Hermione asked.

"Well, we can't just count on one good thing that's happened with Malfoy and tell him everything we know right away. We still don't have real proof that he's not working for Voldemort. We should wait a bit to see if he's really trustworthy." Ron said reasonably.

"I agree" Harry said.

"So what _do _we tell him?" Hermione asked.

"Well, " Harry started, stopping for a minute to consider what he says next." All we know is that we're looking for an object that belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, we know it has something to do with a secret she's been keeping. We know it can bring people from the dead. Malfoy already knows all of that because he claims that Snape told him that. I don't know if you guys remember this, but he said the object is hidden in the forbidden forest. That's something we didn't know. But he also said something else. In his story, he said he asked Snape how did he hear about the object and Snape got all defensive and didn't tell him."

"You think he's lying about that?" Hermione asked

"I'm not sure if he knows how Snape knew about the object or not, but I feel like there's something that happened in the end that he's not telling us. When he told us that part it felt to me like the time Slughorn changed the memory when he told Tom Riddle about the Horcruxes. Something about that part in Malfoy's story isn't right." Harry said.

"Do you think he'll tell us what actually happened?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. But for now we should just tell him what we know, but not how we know it."

"We don't tell him about the poem?" Hermione asked puzzled, "Why not?"

"I've sort of got I theory, but I'm not very sure about it yet. Trust me, for now we should just wait with this." Harry assured her.

At first Hermione raised her eyebrow suspiciously, but then she shrugged in an if-you-say-so expression.

"Here he is." Ron said as they noticed Malfoy getting up from the Slytherin table.

"Come on" Harry said, and they got up as well, following him in the hallway.

"Malfoy" Harry yelled, and the blond Slytherin stopped and turned around.

They got up and started walking towards him, when harry bumped into Clover Spekleton, causing her to droop the books she was carrying.

"Sorry" he breathed quickly, picking up her things and handing them to her.

"Thanks" she mumbled quietly, and Harry ran off after Ron and Hermione.

"What is it?" Malfoy asked them suspiciously.

"Well," Hermione started hesitating, "firstly, I just wanted to thank you for the other day, with the Glacio Snake."

"No problem Granger, I owed you one after the accident in potions."

"So, after what happened we've reached a decision." Hermione continued, looking at Harry.

"We want to try and work with you, about finding this object, we seem to be on the same side here, and we think you can help us." Harry said practically.

"That still doesn't mean we trust you though." Ron added quickly, slightly frowning.

"Acceptable, I suppose I really don't expect you to at once, but I'm glad you came around. This can be done much easier if we don't have to deal with fighting each other on top of everything else. Well, now it's your part to tell me everything you know."

Harry sighed and then told Malfoy everything they knew, as long as being careful not to tell him how they know it, or anything about the poem. Harry knew that for now, at least until Malfoy is proved completely trustworthy, he won't ask him about the little theory he has been developing since the moment he saw the poem.

"So what do you suggest we do now?" Malfoy asked when Harry finished.

"For starters, we could go back to the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, maybe try to talk to her again." Hermione suggested.

"She obviously knows something about this object that we're after, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten so defensive when you asked her about it." Harry said.

"True, but she still hasn't talked to me, what makes you think she'll tell you everything?" Malfoy asked with contempt.

"You will see that we can be quite persuasive when we want to." Harry said, slightly smiling.

"If you insist. When do you suggest we go?"

"How about after classes today?" Ron offered.

"Perfect" Harry stated, "We'll meet today after classes at the entrance of the hall of the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff on the second floor." Everybody nodded in agreement.

They all started to spread, when Malfoy approached Harry.

"Thank you for trusting me Potter." he murmured.

"We still don't fully trust you. We still haven't forgotten all the things you've done to us, but after what happened with the Glacio Snake yesterday, we decided to give it a shot."

"Yes, I know. I wonder how it got to Hogwarts though, they are very rare these snakes. You should probably tell your big hairy friend to watch out for them, he is in charge of the magical creatures in Hogwarts." Malfoy said.

"Don't call Hagrid that." Harry said angrily.

"Sorry, old habits, see you later Potter." He said, then departed from them quickly.

At the end of the day, once all their classes were behind them, Harry Ron and Hermione went to the second floor hallway to go talk to Helga Hufflepuff again, and Harry already knew what he was going to say to her. Once they got there Malfoy was waiting for them near the hall, where Harry Ron and Hermione eavesdropped on Malfoy when he was talking to her the last time.

"Let's go" Harry said, and the three others followed. When they reached the portrait they all stopped and gazed in shock.

The portrait was empty.

"Where is she?" Malfoy asked puzzled.

"She probably has another painting in Hogwarts she visits now. There must be some really big secret that is connected to this object, something she really doesn't want people to know about, if she's willing to leave her portrait in order to get away from us." Harry said thoughtfully, then he turned to another portrait beside Helga Hufflepuff's empty one. In the portrait there were two drunk wizards sitting around a small table with drinks on it, talking and laughing quietly.

"Excuse me, do you gentlemen know where the lady from the portrait near you went? We are trying to find her."

"Dunno," one of them said tiredly, "hasn't been here for a long time, that lady, left the portrait and never came back, not since she talked to that blonde friend of yours." He said pointing at Malfoy.

"Any of you have any idea where the other portrait is?" Hermione asked hopefully.

The two drunk men shook their heads.

"So what now?" Ron asked frustrated.

"We'll have to find her other portrait and talk to her, she's the only thing we've got so far, the only thing to help us solve this mystery." Malfoy said.

They stood in silence for a minute or so before a new voice startled them.

"I know where her portrait is."

Harry and the others jumped in shock, startled to look around and see Clover Spekleton standing behind them, her long brown curly hair tied in a ponytail, so that her pale long face was bare and unhidden.

The four of them stared at her with shock.

"How long have you been standing there?" Hermione asked sacredly.

"Long enough. I can be pretty quiet when I want to." Clover answered. "sorry to have eavesdropped your conversation, I couldn't help but hearing what you said this morning after you bumped into me, Harry. I continued walking and heard what you guys were saying about an object that is connected to a secret Helga Hufflepuff has been keeping that can bring You Know Who back to life. Then I followed you here after school." She explained.

"Why?" Harry asked, confused.

"Well, I want to help you." she said shyly.

"Why?" Harry repeated.

"I've got my own reasons." She said shortly, "Please, let me just help you get to the portrait, and I won't bother you again."

"How do we know you don't work for Voldemort." Rom asked doubtfully.

"If I was working for You Know Who I would've gone to talk to Helga Hufflepuff a long time ago, as I said, I know where her other portrait is."

Harry turned to looked at Hermione, who looked just as confused as he was. What reason could Clover Spekleton have to want to help them? Harry could think of none. But he remembered that she herself was a Hufflepuff, so maybe that had to do with it.

And the fact was that, they needed to talk to Helga Hufflepuff to figure out what the object is, so they needed Clover. He wanted to get this over as quickly as possible, so the threat of Voldemort, that seemed to refuse to leave him, would finally be over, and so he could stop lying to Ginny.

Harry looked behind him. "What do you think?" he whispered to the others, without Clover being able to hear them.

"I don't know, we just started working with this ferret here, we don't want to start trusting anyone who offers help." Ron said, then added to Malfoy, "No offense."

"None taken," he said sarcastically, "but I agreed we should be careful, this chick could be working for the Dark Lord."

"We really need her help though, getting to the portrait, so far Helga Hufflepuff is the only thing we have." Hermione said.

"I agree with Hermione," Harry said, "and besides, we only need her to show us where the portrait is, that's all."

"I suppose you're right." Ron said, "Anyhow, she already knows everything, it won't do us any good not taking her advice."

"I suppose." Draco said, unwillingly.

They turned around and saw Clover was still waiting for an answer.

"Alright," Harry said, "Show us where she is."

"It's not that simple, we can't go there now."

"Why not?" Ron asked confusedly.

"Because," Clover started, "Her other portrait is in the Hufflepuff common room. But I can get you there, just not when it's full of students. At night. Everyone is usually asleep by midnight. Meet me then at the Entrance Hall, and I'll take you there." She said, then ran off.

"She's a really odd girl." Ron said after a few moments of silence.

On their way back to the common room, Hermione said, "Well, I guess it will be an adventure, being at the Hufflepuff common room."

"Yeah, the only common room in Hogwarts I haven't been to." Harry said jokingly, suddenly stopping, realizing that Malfoy is still with them.

"When have you been to the Slytherin common room Potter?" Malfoy asked curiously.

"Long story" Harry said shortly, noticing that Ron and Hermione beside him were grinning, remembering the time in their second year when Ron and Harry drank Polyjuice potion and turned into Crabbe and Goyle.

"Harry?" He suddenly heard a voice from behind him, then turned around to see Ginny with Sam Williams, the annoyingly handsome head boy, standing near her.

"Go on, I'll catch up to you later." He told the others.

"Anything you want to tell me?" she asked him after they left.

"Nothing much," he started, remembering their conversation yesterday, about lying to her, but he couldn't take the risk of her getting hurt because of him. "I was just talking to Malfoy about the DADA research we're doing together, the one about death."

"Oh, okay," she said, relieved, "Do you want to do something later tonight, I'm finishing my rounds around eleven."

"Er, actually, I have a big test tomorrow, I've got to study, probably will just stay in my dorm all night." He said apologetically, knowing that at midnight he had to be with Clover, at the Hufflepuff common room.

"Oh okay, good luck." She said, kissing him lightly on the cheek, before heading up with Sam. The same annoying feeling of guilt he felt yesterday crept into Harry's stomach yet again.

And 11:45 at night Harry Ron and Hermione got down to the Gryffindor common room to go talk with the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff. Harry was scared. Scared that Helga Hufflepuff wouldn't tell them what she knew, and even more scared of what she told her if they convinced her. Just when Harry thought that everything was finally over, there's another chance of Voldemort coming back to life. He wondered if it'll ever be over. If he'll always have to look over his shoulder and be afraid of his life getting off tracks.

When they were about to leave the common room harry remembered that he'd left the cloak of invisibility in their dorms.

"Just in case," he said to Ron and Hermione, "You go ahead, I'll catch up with you." he assured them.

When he was about to leave the common room for the second time, when he bumped into someone as he exited through the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Harry?" he heard the confused and familiar voice.

"Hey" he told Ginny.

"Where are you going? I thought you were in your dorm studying."

"Going to the bathroom, the ones near our dorms are broken." He lied weakly, but could tell Ginny wasn't buying it.

"So naturally you take your invisibility cloak with you."

"Well-"

"What's really going on?" she asked angrily.

"It's complicated."

"I've got time." She said, waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you." he said apologetically.

"But you do trust Malfoy?"

"It's not about trust," he started to explain, "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Get hurt from what? Voldemort's gone." She said, and when he didn't answer she continued, "you can't protect me forever. If we want this to work you have to trust me. You lied to me, Harry, I confided in you and you lied to me. So here's your chance, tell me what's going on, let me help you." she begged, tears showing in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

There was silence for a few moments. Ginny expected him to continue, but he didn't. He couldn't get her involved in this, he would never forgive himself if something happened to her.

"I got to go." She murmured, then turned around and started walking away.

He wanted to yell after her, but he couldn't find his voice. He watched her until she disappeared from his eyes, continuing to stare even after she was gone, the feeling of guilt from before now turned to emptiness.

**AN: hope you like this chapter. Sorry, again, for the long time it took me to update, but he good news are that my school year is over now, so hopefully I'll update much more often. **

**Reviews are most welcomed! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Hey there! so here's chapter 12:) hope you enjoy it, and pleaseeee review!**

**Disclaimer: everything about the Hufflepuff common room belongs to JK Rowling, not to me… (: **

Chapter 12- Helga Hufflepuff's story

Clover's POV

Her heart missed a beat when the clock hit midnight. She waited for the footsteps, for the sound of muffled voices coming from somewhere, for the shadows of four people coming from the halls. Nothing.

Not that Clover expected them to come. Why should they? For all they knew she could be working for anybody, they just met her this year and all of a sudden she offers them help on a secret mission. If she was them, she wouldn't trust herself either.

Although, she wasn't sure how to tell them the reason she wanted to help them. If they did let her help them that question would come up at some point. Should she tell them the truth? Or should she make something up? It would be a shame to lie to them, she already started to like Harry.

All of a sudden she heard people approaching her. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were walking towards her. She sighed in relief. Hermione gave her a warm smile, but her redheaded friend just stared at her suspiciously. Seconds later Draco Malfoy showed up. He too was glaring at Clover with curious eyes.

He didn't really seem like a nice guy, but if I wasn't for Malfoy Clover wouldn't have heard what she did in the hallway earlier that day, about the object they were after.

"Where's Potter?" Malfoy asked Ron and Hermione, his tone slightly nervous.

"He'll be a few seconds late." Hermione replied, then turned to Clover, "so where is the Hufflepuff common room?"

"It's actually in the basement, we call it the Hufflepuff Basement, just like you have the Gryffindor tower." She explained.

"I didn't know Hogwarts had a basement." Ron said.

"You're not supposed to know, that's why Hufflepuff is the most secure common room in Hogwarts. It hasn't been visited by a non-Hufflepuff in over a thousand years, Professor Sprout told us so."

"And yet, you're letting us in right now." Hermione noted.

"Yes, well I want to help."

"But why?" Malfoy asked and all eyes turned towards her waiting for her to answer. She considered what she would say then opened her mouth to speak, then suddenly Harry approached them.

She sighed in relief for not h having to answer, noticing that Malfoy was still examining her suspiciously.

"What took you so long?" Hermione asked him.

"What?" Harry mumbled, and Clover noticed that he was a little bit paler than usual, a small wrinkle between his eyebrows, "Oh nothing, it just took me a while to find the cloak." He said motioning with his hand on a silver cloak that he was holding and Clover wondered what it was. As Harry realized Clover was staring at the cloak he shoved it quickly into his pocket.

"Let's go then." Clover said, and started walking, the four others following her.

Harry's POV

Harry was silent as Clover led them to the Hufflepuff common room. Ron asked him a few times if anything was wrong, but Harry said everything was fine. He was still in shock, but he was pretty sure him and Ginny just broke up. He tried not to think about that, there are other things to worry about tonight. Suddenly Clover stopped.

"Wait a second," Harry said, "This is the entrance to the kitchens."

They were standing in front of the fruit painting that Harry knew led to the kitchen, if you tickled the pear.

"Well that's the entrance to the kitchen," Clover started pointing the painting, "but that's the entrance to the Hufflepuff Basement." She said pointing a stack of barrels next to the painting.

"The entrance to your common room is a stack of barrels?" Ron asked mockingly.

"Laugh all you want, but the fact remains that this stack of barrels is the most secured entrance out of every other common room in Hogwarts." Clover replied, which made Ron's smile into a frown.

Clover turned to the stack of barrels, then tapped on the second barrel from the bottom, then the middle barrel of the second row, rapidly, in a strange rhythm. Suddenly, the lid of one of the barrels slid open and exposed a long passageway.

"What happens if you tap the barrels in the wrong order?" Harry asked her, and saw she was grinning.

"You would be doused in vinegar, not very pleasant, happened to me and my brother on our first day." She said.

They entered the passageway, and walked in it as it carried them deeper and deeper into the ground.

Finally they reached a round wooden door, "be quiet though, you don't want to wake anybody up." Clover told them, as she pushed the door open, causing them gasp in amazement.

The Hufflepuff Basement was the cosiest, most comfortable looking, and inviting place Harry has ever seen.

It was round and big, low ceilinged, and even though it was night, it was warm and sunny. The black and yellow house colors were seen all over the room, the hangings, and sofas and armchairs, as long as some copper furniture. There were round widows with views of grass and nature. Professor Sprout left her mark on the common room and, as she was the Herbology teacher, the room was filled with interesting plants, some of them moved in their vases. There were two round wooden doors that had the sign dormitory on them. Then Harry noticed it, a huge, honey colored wooden piece, with carving on a badger on it, and right above it was what they were looking for, a big portrait of no other but Helga Hufflepuff.

**AN: okay, so this chapter is shorter than the last ones, but the next one will be longer. I just didn't have time to write it since I came back from an eleven days trip with no computer… **

**Anyway, REVIEW :)**


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